This Unexpected Flying Organism visited the observatory last evening while I was setting up. It was quite startling as I was looking at the cloud cover on the All Sky Cam when the close encounter occurred. As soon as I opened the door to get a better view, the visitor left without attempting further contact.

The All Sky Cam is proving to be very useful. It is much more sensitive than normal vision both in daylight ( the haze here can make the sky very bright ) and at night. For example, last night,after the visitation, I was taking some alignment images. At one point the tracking got very erratic. A glimpse outside showed nothing, but the camera view showed a small band of very thin cloud had just passed.

Random Quote

How quickly do we grow accustomed to wonders. I am reminded of the Isaac Asimov story “Nightfall,” about the planet where the stars were visible only once in a thousand years. So awesome was the sight that it drove men mad. We who can see the stars every night glance up casually at the cosmos and then quickly down again, searching for a Dairy Queen.